“We Want The Awards” Really? Truly? No!

The AMPTP set up a new website tonight labeled WeWantTheAwards.com. Its mission? “Please urge the Writers Guild to allow the awards shows to go on as planned.” This is what happens when the WGA hits a nerve among the entertainment establishment and when an out-of-town PR firm hired by the AMPTP gets something terribly wrong. Because the truth as we all know it is that most of Hollywood dreads every awards show, hates all the hassle involved, and would love nothing better than to not attend.

Only people who don’t know anything about showbiz could think this town would go into withdrawal if, say, the Golden Globes show wasn’t held. True, that phony baloney spectacle in the past has proven a valuable marketing tool for the studios and networks pushing their movies and TV series (even if the Hollywood Foreign Press Association behind it is bogus and ethically challenged). But last time I looked, scripted TV will be off the air any day now for the forseeable future. And the films already can boast Globes nominations in their advertisements so it can’t really matter which won or which lost because now every pic looks like a potential winner. Besides, I’ll gladly take talent and producers and even writers at their word that all this competition is meaningless. So what’s the problem?

I’m sure the owners of the fashion labels, and the limo companies, and the hotel ballrooms, and all the other ancillary businesses that depend on the awards shows for business are right now wringing their hands and understandably so. But the reality is that every studio and network (often one and the same thanks to media consolidation) are still gonna be stuck with their already rented space for their Golden Globe parties, including the catering and florist bills etc, whether or not the awards show is held. And, anyway, the AMPTP can’t be concerned about the impact of the strike on the local economy or else it wouldn’t have been a no-showat the LA City Council hearing on that very subject.

The big loser will be NBC, whose parent company GE/NBC Universal is one of the 8 Big Media companies that make up the AMPTP. The same is true of the Oscars broadcaster ABC, whose parent company Walt Disney. Surely, it’s no surprise to the AMPTP that the WGA wants to hurt Big Media financially. But trust the AMPTP to over-react.

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The organization trotted out the respected David L. Wolper to put his name on a Variety letter comparing the WGA’s “boycott” of the Golden Globes and Oscars to America’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. (This is uncomfortably reminiscent of the time Miramax secretly penned an endorsement of its Gangs of New York director Martin Scorsese and attributed it to filmmaker Robert Wise. I’m sorry to say this, because Wolper has always been lovely to me, but his article is crapola. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The writers didn’t even picket Brentwood.

For the AMPTP to expect a groundswell of Internet anger aimed at the WGA for threatening the Golden Globes or the Academy Awards is naive not to mention downright laughable. The ratings for these shows keep going down almost every year so the public doesn’t much care. Especially when the only excitement during the evening is the lame possibility that a nominee will be declared the winner while he/she is in the bathroom.

Right now, just thinking that the Golden Globes might get cancelled has a lot of the Hollywood moguls muttering “Thanks, WGA,” under their breaths. (I know this because I’ve heard a few say that already this week.) And agents, managers, journalists, etc.

But here’s an excellent idea: perhaps if the AMPTP went back to the bargaining table and began real negotiations instead of just delivered ultimatums, the WGA might relent. Then maybe the Back 9 of the TV season wouldn’t be lost. Or the 2008/2009 pilot season. Or the movies slated to come out in 2010. Or the below-the-line workers and everyone else associated with Hollywood have a rotten holiday. Now that’s worth a website.

I haven’t been able to watch the Oscars in years. It seems each year it spends more and more time honoring more and more films seen by fewer and fewer people.

The only people who want the awards show are the networks, hoping that some remnant of Hollywood glamor will translate into ratings, and that snagging invites will impress investment fund managers from Dubai.

I say let the Award Shows sink.

counterneedsabj • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Love how Variety won’t let anyone comment on that TOTALLY LAUGHABLE commentary. I’ve never met Wolper but anyone who would compare the Olympic boycott to the Golden Globes is a douche.

ArizonaKid • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

right on, nikki. sadly, the amptp has shown no sign of behaving logically, professionally, or morally during these so-called negotiations and remained in their best Scrooge mode… ah, tis the season… only the WGA needs to do all the giving while the amptp does all the taking.

Doofus • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Please AMPTP, Come back to the Table, and DEAL.
Please WGA, Come back and focus on the most important issues, not a wish list.
Focus: people below the line are starting to get hurt.

Yours,

Below the line employee.

Lola • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Is Mr. Wolper and the AMPTP that out of synch with the world? Since when have the Golden Globes been this big ratings bonanza? Last I heard, the Globes and the Academy Awards have been tanking in the ratings!!!

We are on strike. We can not supply product to a network that we are on strike with.

These men are getting dumber and dumber by the day.

Caligari • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Just because it amuses me to note this

WeWantTheawards.net and
WewantTheAwards.org

apparently are still available to anyone who would like to buy those domains.

Slow learners, these folks…

Charity Problems • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

I think this is a clueless strategy for AMPTP to find support, but there is a possible problem with the Oscars that may lurk on the horizon, and it is just the kind of low blow (possibly two or more low blows) that AMPTP may attempt.

AMPAS (i.e., the Academy that hands out the Oscars) sanctions “Oscar Night America” parties across the country on Oscar night (obviously). The parties are produced by local charities that use it as a fund-raising event. You can read a recent press release about it here.

AMPAS is an AMPTP member. Some people don’t believe me, but AMPTP is kind enough to list their membership here. See the “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” near the top? AMPAS.

It’s been a relatively bad year for charities in terms of fund-raising. The first low blow that may be coming is sad tales from charities worried that the WGA not giving a waiver to AMPAS could hurt their Oscar night parties.

Since it has been a bad year for fund-raising, the charities may very well raise less money than last year regardless of anything. A second low blow would be charities reporting about their lackluster Oscar night fund-raising.

Those are two possible low blows, but it could get worse.

AMPTP companies could feign concern about the lower fund-raising numbers and ante up amounts to the charities that brings them level with last year at least. Since the TOTAL amount that various local charities raised was $3 million, this is relatively inexpensive PR that can be done in 52 cities.

I’m not saying that AMPTP will do this or that charities would cooperate if it was attempted. I have no special insight into AMPTP other than it being a giant anal sphincter. But like all anal sphincters, shit comes out of it and using charities for its own purpose would be pretty damn shitty.

e • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Are you kidding?
This HAS to be a joke!
I’m eating ramen for Christmas and these jabonies want my Union, who they’ve lied to & ignored these last 7 weeks, to just forget about all of the incredible hostility, manipulation and cruelty they’ve used against us so they can have their little f***ed up kudos-fest?
HA!
Come back to the table, negotiate fairly, then MAYBE.

Stuart Creque • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Charity Problems — you can also find AMPAS listed on the WGA’s list of struck companies, here.

Picket Boy • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Wolper neglects to mention that 64 countries beside the US chose to boycott the Olympics held in Moscow that year because they recognized that taking a stance against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was more important than participation in a frivolous competition for trophies. The WGA is taking just such a principled stance against the intransigence, greed and hegemony of the multi-national corporations who have likewise “invaded” Hollywood.

Scripter • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Read the rest of Variety – their own poll says the writers have the “hearts and minds” of America. Why? Everybody thinks people should be paid for their work. Striking the awards shows is hitting the studios where it hurts – it’s no longer inside baseball, and people are saying – just pay them already! Which they’re gonna have to do, before the Oscars. Stay with it kids.

outside the gates • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Regarding the charity issue, I’m sure the AMPTP will point their middle finger at the WGA for spoiling the fundraising. I doubt the charities want the negative attention that would be brought to them by pointing fingers as well. Still, these over-paid studio folks could write some big checks to the charities and not even miss that fifth home they were considering buying. The WGA will weather all the bs the AMPTP gentlemen throw at them. WGA members are a determined lot – it’s easy to be strong when you know you’re right.

– writer, not yet in the guild

WGA Ed • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Hey — guess that Variety letter is another example of Bart’s idea of objective coverage. And, how suspect is it for an organization to quote a “Letter to the Editor”?

Oh, by the way, we never said they couldn’t have their show. We only said they couldn’t do it with WRITTEN MATERIAL and that we would be out front picketing. We’re only the WGA. They don’t need us, right? They can just keep kicking us in the balls, right? They can just issue ultimatums and insult us, right? They can just refuse to even negotiate with us, right?

Zackery • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Like an Olympic athlete training day and night from the time they can walk and then for hours before and after school to one day compete in a world class event, a young actor is loaded by his mom into their Saturn for a 2,000-mile trip, then sits day after day behind the Oakwood Apartments smoking cigarettes waiting for a call from his agent, day-dreaming with all his might of an Oscar. Is that it, Mr Wolper?

And I’m not saying those in the profession don’t work hard: writers, actors, crew, and so on, even producers — I was being a little naughty with the cigs behind the Oakwood thing. So this idea that the only worthy payoff could be an Oscar is just the kind of logic a crooked Emperor uses thinking his hearty wave to the peasants from the balcony of his castle is enough reward to excuse his tyrannical rule. And then back to the cigs at the Oakwood– I’m just saying there are achievements made in Hollywood–not the least of which is that busted old real estate billboard for Hollywoodland–but WORLD CLASS ATHLETES? Seems producers insisting on writing by committee with the help of the Cassandra Report have once again lost the plot.

For Wolper and the AMPTP to compare a marketing extravaganza loosely disguised as an award show to the disappointment of a trained athlete denied a chance to compete would make Kafka blush. I’m not a member of the WGA as I’m guessing my first run on sentence gives away. But I have been following the WGA’s struggle as it it the struggle of every working person in America when up against greedy blow hards like Wolper and the AMPTP. How about let’s start the discussion with how you justify walking away from negotiations, give you a few minutes to explain how NOTHING is fair compensation, and then if we have time we’ll be polite while you theorize about world events. You can start by explaining to the world how the athletes who trained for the 1940 Olympics suffered when they had to miss their chance to compete because of another dumb reason….what was it that time they came up with? Oh yeah, World War II.

A Viewer • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

I’m just a big fan of TV so I could be completely naive, but couldn’t the AMPTP get their precious “awards show” if they just go back to the table and come up with an agreement?

It’s like they want their cake (to not have to pay the writers what they deserve) and eat it too (to still reap the benefits of an awards show). HERE’S a deal for you… and again, maybe I’m being naive here… but make a deal, end the strike, and the show(s) will go on.

All of this talk about the Golden Globes, or no deals being made before Leno/Conan/Jon Stewart/etc. all come back, imply to me that the AMPTP has no interest in getting this resolved in the next month. I’m selfish. I don’t want to be waiting until September for more Heroes.

Writers, I applaud you for not giving in. $250 per streamed episode is a joke. I don’t know what the studios feel like they’re gaining right now, but I know as a fan, I think most of these “propaganda websites” are BS and see right through it. I think I’ll just stick to sending pencils to the moguls, thanks.

Chad • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

The only people who even care about the Golden Globes are my gays. And while the GG’s are normally a national gay holiday, we’re far more concerned about the strike than who Katherine Heigl might have been wearing.

“Because the truth as we all know it is that most of Hollywood dreads every awards show, hates all the hassle involved, and would love nothing better than to not attend.”

Oh brother, What a snarky statement! So sayeth the shepherd, so sayeth the flock. What about the viewers in the rest of America who still believe in the Hollywood myth and who really pay for what you write?
You say that the AMPTP is out of touch (yes they are) and then you come up with this drivel as a defense to cherry picking which awards shows are good or bad. More mudslinging from both of you. I guess there is no higher ground here.

another viewer • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

I just want to be clear, but it seems like in Wolper’s analogy:
Writers = USA
AMPTP = the Soviet Union
Golden Globes = 1980 Olympics

Is a letter that compares them to the Soviet Union c. 1980 really the AMPTP’s idea of good press?

Mheister • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

We’re getting the SAG and the Spirit Awards shows. The deserving actors who turned in those amazing performances (okay, my Guild ignored a few that I thought were worthy, but I’m not here to nitpick) will have their red carpet, their clumsy jokes at the podium, and their chance to thank mom, Jesus, and their agent (in most cases, three different people).

The fashion industry will just have to settle for putting out their absolute best for these two shows.

And honestly, I have no idea what the problem is for the Globes. Can’t 80-something 80-something-year-olds just agree to give the WGA an interim agreement???

Ben Gold • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Everyone is missing the point. We need the Globes, if for no other reason that the boatload of free booze it provides is crucial to surviving this strike-related crap.

Writer • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

Dear Mr. Wolper,

A key difference between the 1980 Olympics and the 2007 strike is that unlike the boycott of 1980, not granting a waiver has a strategic purpose– it hurts the AMPTP’s bottom line on several fronts, which is clearly they only thing they care about.

Other key differences between the 1980s Olympics and 2007 strike include… everything. It’s a stupid comparison.

Realist • on Dec 21, 2007 5:40 pm

What Mr. Wolper doesn’t realize is that the actors themselves would be out picketing the award shows if their contract were already up (like the WGA’s is.) The WGA strike is for the same exact issues the SAG actors will fight for in June. The studios are screwing them over with it’s plan to not pay residuals on streaming video and call anything they want “promotion.”

So using Mr. Wolper’s terribly lame analogy, imagine if the USA athletes in the 1980 Olympics were actually being personally persecuted by the USSR. Yes, they would want a boycott too.